Large tires for tractors and the like vehicles are conventionally mounted on large two piece rims. The radially outer portion is an annular ring commonly referred to as the rim. The rim is adapted to hold the tire. The rim has a 5.degree. bead seat, a pair of axially out flanges, and a drop center portion to facilitate mounting the tire over the flange portions. This annular ring further has a radially inner flange with a plurality of clearance holes to which the second portion of the rim is attached.
The second portion of the rim is a disk which has a central opening which preferably is tapered, this central opening engages the drive axle of the vehicle to which it is attached. The drive axle preferably is a tapered male end and when attached to the disk portion of the rim both parts have their respective axis of rotations substantially coincident.
Radially outward of the central opening is a plurality of holes which can be aligned with the openings of the rim and bolted to the rim by means of threaded fasteners.
These attachment holes in both the rim and the disk portion each have a clearance or relatively larger opening to accept the threaded fasteners. These dimensional tolerances permit the mounted tire and rim assembly to have their respective axis of rotation to be shifted relative to the common axis of the vehicle axle and wheel disk assembly. This ability to shift the relative position of the mounted tire and rim assembly relative to the disk portion can be positively beneficial in reducing tire and rim assembly vibration on tractors and the like vehicles. These vibration amplitudes are most disturbing on hard paved surfaces when the tractors are driven at relatively high speeds in excess of 30 km/h.
The prior art methods to correct this tire wheel assembly vibration characteristic involves numerous required steps of locating a maximum radial runout location, deflating the tire, breaking down the beads and rotating the tire to a distinct, precise location on the rim, reinflating the tire and remounting the tire rim assembly. This method of vibration reduction is commonly referred to as match mounting. When precisely accomplished the desired resultant vibration reduction can be achieved. The match mounting method is inherently time consuming, requires the tire beads to be detached from the rim, often times the fluid medium is a liquid which must be captured and reinjected into the tire, and after completing this procedure if not properly conducted the desired reduction in vibration will not result.